Chapter 6 Hinduism Hinduism Origins The word Hinduism is derived from Sind the name of the region now Pakistan of the river Sindhu The term originally was referred to the religious group of Indians that were not Muslims Most Hindus do not refer to themselves to Hinduism but to their caste community or linguistic group Under Indian law the term Hindu refers to the Hindu denominations as well as any other person in the territories to which the Hindu Family Act extends who is not a Muslim Christian Parsi or Jew by religion The concept of religion in the Western sense isn t very applicable to the Hindu religion Some consider the word Dharma to come close to religion but they recognize this in a limited way Dharma for Hindus means righteousness justice faith duty a religious and social obligation but for some it does not cover all that is sacred for the Hindu The origins have been much debated The most acceptable view is that it had grown from a fusion of the indigenous religions of the Indus Valley with the faith of the Aryans an Indo European people usually thought to have migrated there sometime between 1750 and 1500 BCE The Harappa Culture In the 1926 excavation of the cities Monhenjo Daro and Harappa showed similarities between the two cities that were 300 miles apart Inscriptions on carved seals show that this culture had a written language The Harappas were impressive builders Fire altars suggest domestic fire rituals A mother goddess surmised from scholars seems to be wearing a short Sculptures and statuettes suggest a mother goddess icon skirts abundant jewelry and a fan shaped head dress with two little cups on either side that suggest fire or incense offerings This mother goddess is believed to maybe be an early representation of the deity who became the Goddess A spirit emerging fro a pipal tree with worshippers standing from it is another reoccurring theme The pipal tree is a 2 500 year old Hindu tradition The Indo European The broad term is used by scholars to refer to the family of languages of India of which Sanskrit is one The Vedas Scholars have noted similarities with some Indian and European languages Indo European languages also have many grammatical structures in common It is believed that the Indo Europeans originated in Central Asia and that the migration began around 2000 BCE Others think the migrants originated in modern Turkey A whole other thought holds that the original home of the Indo Europeans was actually the Indian subcontinent No evidence is conclusive but what we do know is that the Indo Europeans composed many poems and manuals on rituals and philosophy These traditions have been committed to memorizing using mnemonic devices that insure pronunciation rhythm and intonation that have been passed by word of mouth over generations Earliest surviving Indo European compositions Originally regarded as revealed scripture but now thought to have been Sankrit for knowledge composed between roughly 1500 BCE Four collections Rig Sama Yajur and Atharva Each collection consists of four sections hymns directions for the performance of sacred rituals compositions of the forest and philosophical works called the Upanishads sitting near the teacher The Artharva Veda differs from the other three Vedas in that it includes material that scholars consider non Aryan like incantations and remedies to ward off illness and evil spirits These chants were used for purposes other than sacrificial rituals The tern Vedas denotes the whole corpus starting with the hymns continuing through the ritual treatises and concluding with the texts of more philosophical characters The Status of the Vedas Not books that are kept in homes Most books are seen as ritual texts that Hindus understand as representing eternal sound eternal words passed on through the generations without change For centuries the acceptance as an orthodox member of the society we call Hindu depended on acceptance of the Vedas as authoritative Brahmins reserved themselves the authority to study and teach these holy words Two influential schools the Mimamsa and Vedanta say that the Vedas are eternal and of non human origin The Vedic seers saw the matras and transmitted them they did not invent or compose them Considered faultless the perfect and supreme source of knowledge The Vedic Hymns Served as manuals of rituals for all the many strands of Hindu traditions The figures that were to become the principle Hindu deities are rarely mentioned in the samhitas only the later Vedic hymns address them directly Indra is a warrior god who battles other cosmic powers Angi is the god of fire who was a messenger Soma is the god of the moon and a plant based elixir used for ritual purposed Most hymns offer praise to the gods but also petition for a good and happy life One dominant feature of Vedic religious life was the ritual sacrifice yanja which is typically performed using fire Rta was a connection that was understood to exist between the rituals and the maintenance of cosmic and earthly order Rta pertains to truth and justice the rightness of thinks that makes harmony and peace possible on earth and in the heavens Hymn to the Supreme Person is a description of how the universe was created through the cosmic sacrifice of the primeval man Frist reference of what later would be the caste system The origins of the four classes varnas are traced to the initial cosmic sacrifice structures The Upanishads Time of intellectual ferment of questioning and rejecting authoritarian Rethink the early hymns and sacrificial rituals Most take the form of conversations between a teacher and student husband and wife etc Karma and Samsara Karma is action referring to a system of rewards and punishments attached to various actions Concept of karma is first discussed in the Upanishads Kara implies a continuing cycle of death and rebirth or reincarnation To achieve liberation from this cycle requires a transforming called samsara experimental wisdom Atman and Brahman The heart of the wisdom is experimental knowledge of the relationship between the human soul Atman and the Supreme Being Brahman Most passages don t specify the relationship between the Atman and Brahman Some passages that go more in depth describe the Brahman as the hidden inner controller of the human soul In others it is described as the frame and the substance of the universe or the universe is woven over Brahman Women in the Vedas The women identified in the Upanishads were
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